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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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So you're just going to invoke the increasing normalization of the regulation of transport since the 1950s as an argument against that trend continuing into the future...because the trend is just normal? And then argue that the trend is great actually.

None of this makes any sense.

No, I'm invoking the fact that "I can do anything I want anywhere I want" is not a reasonable Schelling point and is not true for any other activity, even activities that you think are not endangered - so the fact that you can't drive in places you could drive before does not, in fact, mean that in the future you won't be able to drive at all, any more than the fact that i can't jaywalk across six lanes of traffic on Market street means that in the future I won't be able to walk around at all.

And then argue that the trend is great actually.

Where did I say that? I don't really care whether people in Oxbridge need a loicense to drive their cars across town, presumably they are getting the government they deserve. For my part I'm glad I can visit my local downtown area and hang out on the street without car noise and constantly avoiding pedestrians on a three foot wide sidewalk, so sue me. The marginal changes to curtail cars in downtown areas look like a good thing to me, and I see no appetite around me to ban driving in other places, and yes, I acknowledge it would be Bad if you couldn't drive into the wilderness.

any other activity

Freedom of movement in peacetime is a customary right of Englishmen recognized by countless laws and enshrined even in the Magna Carta.

I agree it's incompatible with modernist government, but the idea that an ancestral tradition that dates back centuries is "not a reasonable Schelling point" is further nonsense.

You're once again conflating "freedom of movement" with "freedom to drive my car anywhere I want, anytime I want". You can't drive your car into my garage, you can't drive your car into a parade, you can't even drive your car on the sidewalk, on the wrong side of the road, when the light is red, or when you're drunk. None of this is an impingement of your freedom of movement.

Bringing up the magna carta is interesting because, when it was written, perhaps 10%-25% of the population were straight up serfs who were literally bound to their master's land. So much for enjoying freedom of movement.